Adin Greenstein

Proffesor Habtamu Tegegne

WOH 1023 - World Civilization 1500-1815

3/12/15
The Interesting Narrative of Greed and Pride
If one can somehow compose the mental and emotional confidence to look past the very
obvious travesties of the Pan-Atlantic slave trade, one would see that the whole ordeal was
primarily a consequence of economic expansion in the American Colonies, tempered with
expansive European Christianity and general Euro-centralism and Euro-superiority. In this paper,
using The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Written by Himself with Related
Documents , I will prove that not only were these the driving forces behind the elaborate slave
trade, but also examine how the slave trade affected these components in turn.
The first factor that necessitates inspection in the examination of the Atlantic slave trade,
as well as any massively inhumane event, are the ways in which those perpetrating the event
manage to justify actions that are so blatantly immoral. Most prominently, slavery was a simple
extension of the blatant euro-centrism that not only founded European Imperialism as a whole,
but in the past had also fostered events such as the Crusades and the Reconquista. Europeans,
which most people in the American Colonies considered themselves to be, naturally felt that they
were superior to any and every other form of man or culture. With the influence of Carl Linnaeus
work, this euro-centrism found the excess of fuel required to establish such a horrid machine.
Linnaeus classification system was crude and stereotypic, mostly based off of the skewed
European interpretations of other cultures. Homo Americanus, those indigenous to the new
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world, were considered to represent such visual stereo types such as red skin, body paint, and flat
faces, they were held to be irritable and custom-bound as a rule. Homo Asiaticus, those hailing
from eastern Asia, were in his writings it is suggested that they were serious, introverted,
haughty, or even greedy, in addition to being ruled by their opinions. Africans were labeled,
somewhat obviously, as Homo Africanus, and where proscribed all the awful stereotypes that
people of African Descent have dealt with for years. In stark contrast, Homo Europeanus were
considered to possess an excess of the Sanguine humor, making them gentle, acute, inventive,
and bound to law and good reason. While this method of classification, despite being obviously
biased and prejudiced from even a slightly objective point of view, only helped fuel the
superiority complex of the white man, which lends credence to the initialization of horrid works
such as the trans-Atlantic save trade. Equiano quickly points out the hypocrisy of the European
view of Africans, pointing out that surely the minds of Spaniards do not change with their
complexions!1
As is true in regards to all so-called self-fulfilling prophecies, the initial domination of
African Americans only led the creation of further justification for their ideology domination. It
only takes one generation of slavery for the descendant of a slave owner to be able to say that
this is simply the way things have always been, and using that as seemingly obvious
justification for the continuation of slavery. Being forced to do such menial tasks reinforces the
idea that grunt work is all Africans are capable of, and the consistent treatment of any man as if
he were animal will shape him into acting like the animal they say he is. The Europeans also
made no effort to even see if the black man could possess the faculties necessary to understand
1 Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Written
by Himself with Related Documents, edited with an introduction by Robert J. Allison
(Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007) , p.14
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European life and culture; When they come among Europeans, they are ignorant of their
language, religion, manners, and customs. Are any pains taken to teach them these? 2While all
this is obviously contrived and unfair, it is probably best phrased by Equiano himself, especially
in regards to his perceived ancestry from one of the Jewish tribes, which would establish a
connection between the black man and the white christens, as Christianity is in essence, a
mutation of Judaism. He said, "Let the polished and haughty European recollect that his
ancestors were once, like the Africans, uncivilized, and even barbarous. Did Nature make them
inferior to their sons? And should they too have been made slaves? Every rational mind
answers, No." 3 This quote lays the truth behind slavery to bear, stating that it is not really a
matter of the white mans necessity to rule over any sort of inferior race.
This brings us to the real driving force behind the infamous slave trade; Money. Pure and simple.
Black people were thrown into slavery in order to be sold as commodities, and then used in order
to save or make their owners time and money. The event was, after all, known as a trade.
Equiano goes into great detail about how he was sold back and forth in his journey towards the
coast of Africa from his home in Essaka, Nigeria4. Occasionally, he simply speaks of how he is
transferred between hands, while other times he goes into great detail about those who bought
him, and even the amount of money exchanged for him on occasion5. In the beginning, slaves
were somewhat of a small luxury that the better-off among the Europeans could afford.
2 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p.14.
3 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p.14.
4 Robert J. Allison, Introduction, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the
Life of Olaudah Equiano Written by Himself with Related Documents, ed. by Robert J.
Allison (Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007) , p.vii.
5 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 19
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Unfortunately, the profusion of slaves that soon existed in the new world gave rise to the
plantation system, which soon transformed slaves from a luxury, into almost a necessity. The
plantation system was a terrible, although very profitable machine. Using a multitude of slaves to
pick things such a cotton, sugar, and tobacco, plantation owners only had to spend the bare
minimum it took to keep their slaves alive, and thus raked in gigantic profits. Equiano outlines
some of the various instruments used to promote efficiency in the slave trade, almost universally
in spite of the slaves themselves. Trading ships were packed with slaves in the same manner as
any other sort of cargo, with no expense being made in regards to their comfort, or even towards
basic sanitation.6 Slaves were not even allowed to die from anything other than neglect, and
would even be recovered if they attempted (or succeeded at) throwing themselves overboard7.
Once on a plantation, he observed that even the expense of a few crumbs of food or a few drops
of water was to be spared needlessly on slaves, as is evidenced by the iron muzzle Equiano
describes being employed in the kitchens of the first plantation, on some poor black woman; she
had one particularly on her head and could not eat or drink.8. Such atrocities only serve to
further illustrate the monstrous efficiency of the slave trade, and the consequential plantation
system, which served only to increase the demand for slaves. While Equiano was undoubtedly
lucky to be saved from the plantation system by Pascal9, the misfortunes he would have suffered
are almost unimaginable. In this case, it is obvious to see why greed and avarice were considered
6 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 23 p. 26. Equiano goes into great detail
here on the suffering of his countrymen aboard the ship, and on the horrors they
experienced.
7 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 26
8 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 29
9 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 30
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to be deadly sins in antiquity. One of the most prominent offences was the separation of those
slaves who shared any sort of close familial or social relationship. The witnessing of such
monstrous acts prompts Equiano to cry out in anguish towards the heart of the issue: Is it not
enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain?
Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice?10 A first hand perspective such
as Equianos makes it painfully obvious that the slave trade was almost completely founded and
grown on economic factors, and the expense of every last shred of humanity. Even the means in
which he purchased his freedom stand as evidence that all of the Slave trade was founded upon
monetary gain, as he, quite literally, had to purchase his freedom.11
Now, as all had been laid bare in a manner Equiano himself might approve of, it is obvious to
everyone what drove ever onwards the terrible machine of Atlantic slavery. Greed, in its most
reprehensible form, was the culprit, and this misplaced pride begat by eurocentrism his assistant.
It was they who dragged Equiano from his home amongst the Ibo, and it was they who forced
him to suffer at the hands of the white men they so easily controlled. Even in modern times,
these two still play a role in the prejudice and racism towards the descendants of Equianos
beloved countrymen. This knowledge must inspire those among us who still hold these
sentiments to purge them from our minds, for if Equianos tale illustrates anything, it illustrates
the horrors mankind can do when bound by Greed and Pride.

10 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 28

11 Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 98
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